Welcome

We are delighted to announce the winners for the Optician Awards 2017. Please click here to see the results.

The awards ceremony took place on Saturday 1st April at Hilton Birmingham Metropole, hosted by the comedian and actor Debra Stephenson.

Optician would like to congratulate all our winners and finalists. It is a fantastic achievement to make it onto the shortlist. Our finalists and winners are chosen by expert panels of judges. They looked for a passion for optics as well as hard facts.

Winning an Optician Award is one of the highest accolades optical professionals, practices and companies can achieve. Congratulations to our winners!

Many people, practices and products count an Optician Award among their most treasured possessions.

We look forward to receiving entries from you for next year’s Optician Awards. Our winners are just like you; dedicated, hardworking and caring players in the optical scene.

Optical Assistant Team of the Year

WinnerGlass and Glass Optometrists
Finalists:

David Burghardt Vision Care

Davies & Jones Optometrists

Eye 2 Eye Opticians

Specsavers Brixham

The ceremony

Details about the event

The Optician Awards has been established for over 20 years and is the highlight of the year for Optical practices, attracting the UK’s most talented Opticians, teams and companies. By attending the awards in Birmingham you will have the opportunity to network with over 500 fellow Opticians.

The gala dinner and awards ceremony for the annual Optician Awards will take place on Saturday 1st April, at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole.

Your ticket prices includes champagne on arrival, an excellent three course meal including half a bottle of wine per person and live entertainment from a top class host, as well as attendance at the most prestigious awards in the optical industry.

Accommodation: There is accommodation available at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. Please click here to book your accommodation at 10% discount.

Alternatively, The Genting Hotel at Resorts World Birmingham is a 5 minute walk away. For more information and to book your accommodation please click here.

The Optician Awards have teamed up with HotelMap to bring discounted rates to our guests. Please click here for discounted rates at nearby hotels

Premium tables: Make your organisation stand out and your team feel exceptional by booking one of our limited premium tables. A premium table will guarantee you and your team a prime table position, a branded meeting point on arrival and two bottles of champagne on ice waiting for you on your table.

Prices: Tables hold 10 people as standard. There are also tables for 12 people available.

Pricing

Premium table

Standard table

Table of 12

Standard seat

Until 20th February

£2850.00

£1750.00

£2050.00

£185.00

After 20th February

£2850.00

£1850.00

£2250.00

£195.00

There are no discounts available on the premium tables.

Please note all prices exclude VAT.

Please ensure that you have read our terms and conditions before booking – which notes details about our cancellation policy.

Gallery

Sponsors

The people that make the optician awards possible

Alcon - sponsoring Contact lens practitioner of the year

Alcon® has a heritage of innovation which has improved the lives of millions of contact lens wearers and providing valuable support to Eye Care Practitioners, helping them develop their clinical skills, understanding of contact lens wearers’ needs and their eye care business.

Under the umbrella of the Alcon® Academy for EyeCare Excellence, Alcon® supports eye care practitioners, students, support staff and business owners with education and training developed in association with independent experts.

Hoya - sponsoring Independent practice of the year

A leader in lenses for 75 years
Where Hoya leads, others follow. For 75 years, Hoya’s revolutionary optical and healthcare solutions have been pushing technological boundaries for customers around the world. Lens design has advanced considerably over the years, but one thing has remained unchanged: the dedication to quality and innovation for which Hoya has become known.

A global player
Hoya Corporation was founded in 1941 in Japan by Shoichi and Shigeru Yamanaka, two visionary brothers. Originally a small manufacturer of optical lenses, the company saw opportunities in the emerging fields of healthcare and information technology. Today, Hoya technology can also be found in medical camera lenses, Blu-ray players, smartphones, computers and televisions.

Total eye care
Hoya works tirelessly to understand the individual needs of its customers. From the latest lens designs and thinnest, most durable materials to award-winning anti-reflective coatings and advanced vision examination technologies, Hoya invests heavily in research and development. The result is a world-renowned range of products providing total eye care.

Did you know?
Hoya employs over 34,000 employees in more than 150 subsidiaries and affiliates across the globe.

Johnson & Johnson - sponsoring Contact Lens Patient Engagement Award

Over twenty seven years ago Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Companies changed contact lenses forever when the world’s first disposable contact lenses, ACUVUE® Brand Contact Lenses, were launched.
Since then the ACUVUE® revolution has continued, right up to today with a revolutionary design for
correcting presbyopia, 1-DAY ACUVUE® MOIST MULTIFOCAL and the launch of
ACUVUE OASYS® 1-Day with HydraLuxe™ Technology. The #1 selling contact lens in the world1 unbeaten
on comfort, now available in a daily lens.

At Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Companies, we are committed to supporting your success by delivering
innovative technologies that address your patients’ needs. ACUVUE® Brand Contact Lenses offer
more than just vision correction. The unique EYE-INSPIRED™ Design addresses different needs and
offers patients an exceptional experience that truly impacts the way they see, the way they are seen
and the way they live their lives.

We are also committed to delivering best in class professional education aimed at Eye Care
Practitioners, support staff and students. This is to help further develop the clinical, technical and
communication skills that make a real difference to the service you deliver to your patients. We
have a large professional team to support you with your learning and we are all passionate about
education.

Starting with a wide range of hands-on interactive courses at our Johnson and Johnson Vision Care Institute, we aim
to enhance clinical skills and inspire learning for over 1600 practitioners each year.
In 2015 we launched our exciting new industry leading initiative STEP® ( Success Through Education Program)
which supports optometry students as they transition through to becoming newly qualified
practitioners.

OCCS - sponsoring The Family Optician of the Year

The Optical Consumer Complaints Service are excited to be supporting The Family Optician of the Year award. The OCCS mediates consumer complaints helping practitioners and patients to find a resolution and gives advice and guidance to consumers and practices. This work of the OCCS allows Jennie Jones and her team to gain insight into the importance of customer care within optics. In listening to patients and practices, it is clear that customer care is that the heart of encouraging patients to successfully engage in eye care and makes business sense!

Many practices across the UK are doing a fantastic job, and the OCCS are thrilled to support an award that recognises a commitment to long term patient relationships that extends to successive generations and approaches the running of the practice with family values at its heart. As Judges we look forward to seeing how practices across the UK define “family values” and how this benefits their business, their colleagues and most importantly their patients.

Scope - sponsoring the drinks reception

The growing epidemic of ocular surface disease has become ever increasing in Optometry practices nationwide. In a recent study 53% of Optometrists reported seeing in excess of 10 dry eye patients during their regular sight test routine*! With 50% of patients being asymptomatic** and 65-70% of the refractive power on the Tear Film it is important we get a handle on this epidemic as it has numerous clinical implications and a serious damaging effect on a Patient’s quality of life.

The service has been set up to provide a win, win, win scenario to patients, Optometrists and Practices. It provides:

Charrity partner

The people that make the optician awards possible

Blind Veterans UK

Blind Veterans UK is the national charity for ex-Service men and women with severe sight loss.
We provide blind and vision-impaired veterans with the free services and lifelong practical and emotional support they need to lead full and independent lives. We currently support more vision-impaired veterans than ever before in the charity’s history and have set an ambitious target to double the number of veterans receiving our life changing support by 2022.

Our current, and future, membership is aging. In five years, more than 40% of the blind veterans we support will be over 90. That’s why we have taken the decision to invest in community-based teams to make our services more accessible to our beneficiaries.

Our research shows there are approximately 59,000 ex-Service men and women who could benefit from the support of Blind Veterans UK, most of which are not currently being supported by us.
With its No One Alone campaign, Blind Veterans UK is trying to reach out to the tens of thousands vision-impaired ex-Service men and women who are eligible for its free services and lifelong support.
Anybody who is blind or severely vision impaired and has served in the Armed Forces is eligible for Blind Veterans UK’s specialist support – no matter when they served or how they lost their sight.
Referring people to us is easy. Call 0800 389 7979 and speak to our friendly team. Alternatively, visit www.noonealone.org.uk or email information@blindveterans.org.uk.

Sponsorship

How to gain sponsorship with us

The Optician Awards are recognised as the benchmark of excellence in the optical community and are a unique opportunity for the whole industry to gather on a single evening to celebrate the best in achievement, ability and performance. The Awards Ceremony takes place on the Saturday 1st April 2017 at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole and it sees the industry’s leading movers and shakers gather to honour their peers in the optical community. In 2016 we had a record-breaking number of nominations and over 500 industry professionals attended the prestigious ceremony in Birmingham.

FAQs

Please see answers to some frequently asked questions below. If your question is not answered here, please get in touch with the awards team on 020 7501 6782, who will be happy to help.

What is the deadline to submit an entry to the Optician Awards 2017?

A: The entry deadline has been extended to midnight Friday 27th January 2017.

How much does it cost to enter?

A: It is FREE to enter the Optician Awards.

How many entries may I submit?

A: A practice can only enter a maximum of THREE of the practice awards. This does not include the individual awards.

What is the difference between the entry document and supporting material?

A: The main component of your entry is the entry document. The entry document should be no more than 1000 words. All key information listed in the criteria for the category needs to be in the entry document.

Supporting material is optional and does not contribute to the 1000 word limit of the entry document. Supporting material may include, but is not limited to photographs, testimonials, graphs, pdfs of any printed material (adverts, brochures, news articles etc).

Is there a limit on how much supporting material I can submit?

A: You should submit no more than 5 supporting documents. Each supporting document can have a maximum of 10 pages per file.

Do I need to submit samples to support my entry?

A: If you are entering the Frame of the Year, Contact Lens Product of the Year or the Lens Product of the Year, you should send us ONE example of your product to Lucy Allen, Optician Awards, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, London SE24 0PB.

Will I be able to collect my samples after the judging period?

A: Samples will not be returned but collection may be arranged by applying to the event manager at the time of entry. Samples will be held until Friday 7th April 2017 after which time they will be destroyed.

What happens after I have submitted my entries?

A: Once you have submitted your entries they will be processed by the awards team, ready for judging. Judging takes place in early February and the shortlist will be announced shortly after.

Who are the judges?

A: The Optician Awards will be judged by a panel of experts specialising in different areas of optometry and the optical industry.

When will I know whether my company has been shortlisted?

A: The full shortlist will be published on this website in mid February. You will also receive confirmation by email at this time.

When will I find out if my company has won?

A: The announcement of the winners will be made at the Optician Awards on Saturday 1st April at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole.

How do I buy tickets for the dinner?

A: Tickets for the dinner will be available to buy once the shortlist has been announced in the middle of February.

Lucy Allen

Darren Ward

Technology Practice of the Year

This award will seek to reward the practice that can demonstrate an ability to use technology effectively. This might be for the direct clinical needs of the patient or the efficient operation of the practice for the patients’ benefit. Particular emphasis on the detection of ocular conditions and provision of strong eye care should form a major theme in any entry. The judges will be looking for evidence of a range of technologies such as tonometry, perimetry, pachymetry, retinal and anterior digital imaging and corneal topography plus links with local hospitals and ophthalmologists. This award seeks to reward a practice that has applied technology for the benefit of the patient and the promotion of the practice.

The Family Optician of the Year

Sponsored by:

This Award will recognise and reward a practice that has family values at its heart. The judges will not only be looking for a practice that appeals to families but also a practice that has a family at its heart. The judges will be looking for evidence of the mechanisms that encourage children, parents, grandparents or other relatives, to share and engage in eye care. Entrants may want to major on a single family’s delivery of eyecare offering cradle to the grave care for successive generations by successive generations. Entrants should show how their approach to the whole family makes business sense and cements the practice’s position in the community.

Audiology Award

New for 2017

Hearing care services are increasingly being combined with the delivery of optical services. Optician wants to hear from practices that excel in offering combined hearing and vision services to their patients. The judges will want to see how the practice’s patients benefit from both services being offered from a single practice and how the business has benefitted. Entries are welcome from practices who are new to audiology or those who has offered both services for some time. The winner of this award will be able to demonstrate the advantages of the dual service to the patient base, to the fortunes of the practices. The panel will also want to see how the wider practice team has embraced, and communicated multidisciplinary working.

Multiple Practice of the Year

Multiple optical outlets can be found on most high streets but what makes the ideal multiple practice? The panel of judges will want to see evidence of why customers choose the entrant’s practice over others and how their expectations are met once they have booked an eye exam. Entries are welcome from outlets that have taken ‘big is beautiful’ as their motto and harness the power of national recognition. The panel will want to understand the character of the practice and the processes employed for serving customers. The judges will also want to see evidence of the clinical, commercial and community success of the branch. The judges will be looking for evidence of eyecare par excellence, big team working and how being part of a chain makes a difference.

Independent Practice of the Year

Sponsored by:

Independent retailing is enjoying a resurgence around the country and Optician is looking for the best of the optical bunch. The panel of judges will be looking for a practice that offers real product choice, outstanding customer experience and clinical excellence. The judges will want to see evidence of how the business has created its personality in its local area, links with other businesses and its profile within the community. The judges will be looking for evidence of service, individualised eyecare and a practice that adds something a little different to its competitors. The panel of judges will want to see the quality and diversity of optical products offered and see positive feedback on that from the practice’s clients.

Fashion Practice of the Year

Fashion and eyewear are synonymous for many customers and practices are taking that as their cue to meet that need. The judges will be looking for a practice that can demonstrate its ability to promote and retail fashion eyewear effectively. The winning practice will understand the importance of colour and stylish eyewear to its patients and will be proactive in sourcing product that makes the practice stand out. Perhaps your approach is through cosmetic contact lenses, luxury brands, bespoke or innovative new designers. The panel will be particularly interested in hearing from entrants how their practice is promoted and positioned within the community and about any links with other fashion-focused businesses.

Contact Lens Patient Engagement Award

Sponsored by:

Exciting, vibrant practices employing innovative ideas that enthuse and engage patients in contact lens wear are the focus of this award. Our panel of judges will be looking for evidence of the strategies involved in promoting contact lens wear to a wide range of patients. They will also want to see how those patients are managed to maximise comfort and vision while reducing drop outs. The winner of this category will be able to show creativity in communicating and promoting lenses to patients and growth in their contact lens business. This award is looking for new approaches, new talent and, potentially, younger practices who are growing their contact lenses from a modest base. The winner may be operating in the independent or corporate sector and will be promoting the widest array of lenses to the broadest spectrum of patients. The judges want to see different approaches and young ideas from some of the less well-known names in the profession.

Lens Product of the year

Entries in this category are open to lenses, coatings, tints and treatments that have made an impact during the last 12 months. On our shortlist will be lens products that our judges feel have given patients and practitioners added value. Other factors taken into consideration will be the product’s significance to practice and patients and those products that deliver the wow factor. Emphasis will also be placed on the level of innovation the product employs and the way in which it has been presented to the market. Entrants should provide the judges with samples or demonstration tools where applicable.

Frame of the Year

Entries in this category are open to frames that have made an impact during the last 12 months or are destined to shape future trends. The judges will make their award to a frame that has made an impact. This may be because of it style, value to the wearer or breadth of appeal. The chosen frame will wow the patient and please the practitioner. Emphasis may be given to style, saleability, innovation or the whole promotional package. The judges will also take into consideration the way in which the frame has been presented to the market and its appeal to customers. Entrants should provide the judges with samples or demonstration tools where applicable.

Contact Lens Product of the Year

Entries in this category are open to contact lenses, solutions and related products that have enhanced wearers’ contact lens experience. On our shortlist will be lens products that have made a real impact in retaining wearers, creating new fits and offering practitioners a lens they want to fit. Other factors taken into consideration will be the product’s significance to practice and its ability to grow the sector. Emphasis will also be placed on success in practice, the level of innovation the product employs and the way in which it has been presented to the market. Entrants should provide the judges with samples or demonstration tools where applicable.

Optical Supplier of the Year

Optics is a relationship business and this award will be presented to an organisation that excels its customers’ needs. The panel of judges will be looking for suppliers to the retail optical business who can demonstrate excellence in service, quality and relationships. Entries are welcome from prescription labs, distributors and service providers who are truly valued by their optical practice customers. If you are a practice why not nominate those suppliers you hold in high regard to see them rewarded for the work they do. The judges will be looking for evidence of excellent service and customer testimonials.

Optical Assistant Team of the Year

This trophy is designed to reward a support team of optical staff that can demonstrate excellence in customer service and patient care. The judges will be looking for reception and other non-professional staff who have made a tangible difference to the experience of clients and the practice’s success. Our panel will be looking for teamworking that makes customers look forward to their visit to the practice so much they encourage their friends to use the practice too. The judges will want to hear how the team interacts with patients, how products and services are communicated and the approaches made to training and gathering feedback. This is a team award so close working within a team should be highlighted. The judges will be interested in any activities outside the practice that drive footfall and raise the profile of the practice in the local area and all of those special things that make customers come back for more.

Contact Lens Practitioner of the Year

Sponsored by:

Are you passionate about contact lenses? Then this is the award for you. Our panel of judges will be looking for someone with a real drive to get all of their patients enjoying the benefits of contact lenses. This award isn’t about your qualifications, specialist fitting skills or even your length of experience. This award is about your ability to educate, enthuse and engage clients, of all ages and types in contact lens wear. The panel want to see the everyday ways those unsung heroes in practice boost engagement, increase fitting rates and reduce drop outs. The judges will want to see evidence of the volume, types of lenses and variety of patients successfully fitted. The panel will also be interested to hear how the individual has pushed their practice to be more pro-active in offering lenses to patients and hear testimonials from customers and colleagues.

Dispensing Optician of the Year

How high profile is dispensing in your practice and who drives it? The winner of this award will be an excellent dispensing optician with great communication skills who champions dispensing. Entries are welcome from DOs working in practices of all types and sizes and evidence of patient satisfaction should be demonstrated. The judges will also want to see evidence of the DO’s expertise in eyewear styling and feedback from patients to that effect. Emphasis will be placed on everyday eyecare solutions, patient communication as well as clinical excellence and all round practice skills. Whether your specialism as a DO is clinical or fashion this is the category for you.

Optometrist of the Year

Sponsored by:

This category is designed to reward an optometrist who uses their optometric skills to enhance the lives of patients, colleagues and the community. The judges will be looking for evidence of excellence in a range of areas. These should include clinical techniques, interaction with other practice staff and, most importantly, patients. The judges will be looking for true commitment to patient care and examples of how the optometrist’s actions have benefitted patients and the practice. The judges will also want to see how the optometrist has made an effort to further the eye care of their patients and enhance their practice’s reputation. This category is for the optometrist who goes the extra mile for patients and the profession. It may also be an optometrist who works as hard outside the practice to improve the eye care of patients as they do inside, perhaps something else the judges may want to see evidence of.

Enhanced Optical Service Award

New for 2017

The optical profession’s role as a primary care provider has come to the fore following recent changes to the NHS. The panel of judges in this category will be looking for a practice that is offering enhanced services and primary eye care in its community. This may be through schemes for those with diabetes, glaucoma and AMD or offering triage, refractive surgery or dry eye management normally provided through GPs and the Hospital Eye Service. The judges will want to know how these scheme have emerged be they through Clinical Commissioning Groups and the HES or with private providers.